Now available at bdp bookstore!
“Photographer” by Henri Cartier-Bresson

http://store.bookdummypress.com/product/photographer-by-henri-cariter-bresson

Requires no explanation for this masterful body of work.

 Bookdummypress and Reminders Project Stronghold have joined forces to launch a new photography publication award. It celebrates the newsprint’s contribution to the evolving creativity of self-publishing.　

 Newsprint is a medium with minimal commercial strings attached and allow for a range of experimentation. It has the potential of reaching a diverse audience, the work will be spread to a wider area, faster. It is an autonomous medium accessible to all. This award is intended to stimulate to take a renew approach towards this format and to introduce photographers to a way to self-publish and self-distribute their work. 

- APPLICATION DEADLINE -

Submissions accepted from March 20th – May 1st, 2013.   

Please send all submissions to: http://bit.ly/newsprint2013

*Give us the link to access your pdf file, or send it through any file transfer website. PLEASE DO NOT ATTACH THE FILE AND SEND BY EMAIL.

If you have any questions: newsprint2013@reminders-project.org 

- GUIDELINES - 

The Newsprint Award is an award open to individual photographer/artist. Submissions must consist of coherent photo projects for a 24-page newsprint publication, not a portfolio of the images, tabloid size (43.18 cm × 27.942 cm)(17 in × 11.0 in), color or B/W.  All submissions should be in PDF format with approximately 400-word project description. Any text within the project must be in English or Japanese. No Entry Fee.

- PDF file (Tabloid size, 24pages)

- Project Description – 400 words (EN or JP)

- Résumé / Narrative Bio – 700 words (EN or JP) 

- AWARD -

The winning project will be announced on June 1st, 2013 and will be published in July 2013. He/She will be awarded with an opportunity to have their work published in newsprint and exhibited in Tokyo, together working with RPS and bdp to ensure the dissemination of the project to as wide an audience as possible.

日本語のインフォメーションはコチラから→ http://reminders-project.org/rps/newsprint-award-2013jp/

Like Newsprint Award facebook page for updates!

New artist publication available at bdp bookstore:
“Selections from the Joint Photographic Survey”
by Adam Ryder
http://store.bookdummypress.com/product/selections-from-the-joint-photographic-survey-by-adam-ryder

It is a re-curation of a (fictional) document which purports to contain photographs taken by a joint Colonial Transjordanian-Palestinian team. The photographs as seen in book and print form are supposedly documents of historic architecture and monuments from the Holy Land in the 1920’s.

The images that comprise the Survey work are in fact digitally-created composite images sourced from free-use photographs found on the Library of Congress website, primarily from a large collection donated by the American Colony in Jerusalem. In creating these architectural composites, Ryder seeks to underscore how the built environment of this particular area of the Middle East lays bare the cultural revision and re-inscibing that has taken place there over centuries, creating a jumble of stylistic choices that point to the ideological shifts that have swayed so extremely in the area.

<Adam Ryder>

Adam Ryder is an artist working in lens-based mediums living in Brooklyn, NY.  He hold an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and a BA in Studio Arts from Clark University in Worcester, MA.  He has been the recipient of both an individual artist grant and an artist residency and has shown in the US as well as the UK.  Ryder’s two most recent projects are “Areth: An Architectural Atlas” and “Selections from the Joint Photographic Survey.”  Both bodies of work incorporate  a series of photographic prints and independently-published photo books.

For more information, check out Adam’s website →
http://adamryder.com/

“Shashin Shuhou” vol.15, 32, 76 (Photography Weekly)
http://store.bookdummypress.com/products?search=shashin+shuhou&search-submit=

Shashin Shuhou is a total of 375 weekly photography magazine series that was published for only 7 years from 1938-1945 by the Japanese government information bureau. Pictures were taken by Ihei Kimura, Ken Domon, Taikichi Irie and other known and unknown photographers. A great example of prewar Japanese documentary photography with well designed ads on the back cover.

bdp Interview: Japanese Photographer Hajime Kimura

It is a great pleasure for us to feature an interview with Hajime Kimura and his new book “Kodama”.

Kodama is a spirit from Japanese folklore, which is believed to live in certain trees. Cutting down trees which houses Kodama is thought to bring misfortune. Kodama also serve as a title of the photography book by Hajime Kimura. This 56-page memory is richly overflowing with the recollections of Hajime’s 5-year spent living, between 2007 and 2011, with the MATAGI tribe.

-What is the function of the Artist Studio for you?

Studio is a place where I can get lost in my thoughts and shape those thoughts into some kind of form. 

-Why do you make books?

I believe that books let me form my ideas in a much more sensuous and tridimensional ways, also they are easy to present and pass around.

-Tell us about your latest publication “Kodama”

This book is about my admiration towards the countryside. I grew up in Tokyo suburbia, it was right after my third year of college when I first heard of “Matagi” a mountain village in the north of Japan. I keep going back to photograph in this mountain village for about 5 years. 

For this book I extracted the documentary aspect of the story and edited with fewer pictures. My intention was to show my lack of knowledge of the place and its culture, how I stepped into a different world from the one I was use to in Tokyo. I wanted to give the viewers the same disoriented and spiritual feelings I had when I first encountered the village and its people . Years after finishing the project  I am still struggling to fully understand the world of ”Matagi”. 

So if anybody who sees my book begins to wonder what “Matagi” is, and wishes to know more about this mountain village, the book would have succeeded. The book also shows my point of view as an outsider

- What do you care the most when you make books?

It’s been a year that I have been developing some thoughts on bookmaking, I believe how you form your idea is very significant. Unlike framed pictures, with books you can play with many elements and choices. From types of bookbinding, the thickness, textures, colors of the paper, numbers of pages, the choice between hard cover or soft cover, etc. There are numerous decisions to make. It is important to understand the material you have to work with and the type of book you want to make, if you take these choices for granted you could end up with a mediocre book.

- Any photobook out there that you wish you were the author of it? And why?

One of the most influential photobook for me since I started photography is “Peter Beard (Special Edition)” by Peter Beard, an autobiographical photobook. Not only the contents but also I like the bookbinding: very simple red and blue cloths-binding. It’s hard to describe in one word, but I would sure be excited if I were Peter.

☆ Signed copy of “Kodama” is now available at bdp bookstore → http://store.bookdummypress.com/product/kodama-by-hajime-kimura-signed

☆ Check out more of his work → http://hajimekimura.net/

<BIO>

Hajime Kimura is a Japanese photographer born in 1982. He was raised in Chiba prefecture. Having studied architecture and anthropology at University, he began his photography career in 2006. In 2012, he participated in World press photo Joop swart masterclass. He is a recipient of Vattenfall Photo Award 2nd Prize, Tokyo Documentary Photography Workshop Scholarship, Kuala Lumpur International Photo Award and more. He is currently based in Japan, also covers stories in China and India.

今、国内外から注目されている若手日本人写真家の一人、木村肇さん(以下略：HK)とのインタビューと、彼の最新作「谺」をご紹介します。

「谺」とは古くから日本に伝えられている精霊で、樹木に宿ると考えられており、樹を切り倒すことは災いを呼ぶとも言われています。その「谺」がタイトルの木村さんの写真集は、日本の東北地方で暮らすマタギ民族と過ごした彼の５年間の想いが溢れる一冊です。

−肇さんにとってスタジオ／アトリエとはどんな場所ですか

HK: 自分が物思いに耽られる場所、またはそこから湧いてくる考えを何らかの形に出来る場所です。

−なぜ本を作るのですか

HK: 自分が思っている事をより感覚的、具体的な形に出来ると感じているのと、それを形にしたあとで、人に渡せたり簡単に見せたりする事が出来るからです。

−最新作「谺」についてお聞かせ下さい

HK: 一言でいうと、自分の田舎への憧れが形になった写真集です。東京の郊外で育った僕は大学在学中に彼らの存在を知りました。結局足掛け５年間ある山村に通い続ける事になるのですが、本の内容は極力ジャーナリスティックな部分を抜いて少ない写真で作りました。何も知らない自分が東京とは真逆の世界へと足を踏み入れ、そしていつの間にか元の世界に戻って行く。すなわちそれは彼らのことを結局は理解できなかったという、もう一つの思いも含めています。

本を通してマタギとは何なのか、もう少し写真を見てみたいと思って下さるのならば、それはある意味この本の意図としている事でもありますし、同時にそれはアウトサイダーとしての自分自身の立ち位置も表しています。

−本作りにあたり心がけている事はありますか。

HK: 本づくりに関して色々と思いが膨らんでいったのはここ１年ほどですが、その中で重要だなと感じたことは、自分の思いをいかに形にするのかという事なのだと思いました。１枚の額装された写真と違って本は、たくさんの要素が組み込まれた仕掛けと言えると思います。その中で装丁、紙の厚さや質感、色、ページ数、ハードカバーにする意味など、取り上げたらキリがありませんが、ひとつひとつの部品が自分の思いを込められる要素ですし、逆にそれがおろそかになるとつまらない物になってしまう恐れもあるのではと思います。

−世に出ている写真集で、自分が著者だったら、と夢見る本はありますか。また、その理由は。

HK: 写真をやり始める前、またその後も大きな影響を受けた写真集にピーター・ビアードの“Peter Beard Special Edition)”という自伝的な写真集があります。彼の写真の内容もさることながら、赤と青のシンプルな布張りの装丁も好きです。一言でいうのは難しいですが、自分がピーターだったら興奮します。（笑）

☆ サイン入り「谺」はbdp ブックストアでお買い求め頂けます → http://store.bookdummypress.com/product/kodama-by-hajime-kimura-signed

☆ 木村さんのウェブサイトはコチラ→ http://hajimekimura.net/

＜プロフィール＞

1983年千葉県出身。芝浦工業大学卒 
2006 年より本格的に写真家活動を開始。現在日本を始め中国、インドを中心に撮影を行っている。2012年に世界報道写真財団-Joop Swart Masterclassに日本人としては二人目の選出。Vattenfall photo award（ドイツ）２位、東京ドキュメンタリーフォトワークショップ・スカラーシップ (2011)、上野彦馬日本写真芸術学会奨励賞 (2011)、Kuala Lumpur International Photo Award (2011) などを受賞。また、Bursa 国際フォトフェスティバル（トルコ）、アンコールフォトフェスティバル（カンボジア）等でも作品がスライド上映されている。2012年には写真集「谺」 （窓社）を上梓。2013年3月にはイギリスで開催されるFormat international photofestivalに参加予定。